What Happened to the August 1991 Soviet Coup Plotters?

Eleven hard-liners in the Soviet government, military, Communist Party, and KGB were named in a Russian court as the organizers of the failed August 1991 coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

They included the so-called “Gang of Eight” that had placed Gorbachev under house arrest -- a short-lived, self-declared provisional government that called itself the State Committee for the Emergency Situation was known by its Russian acronym, GKChP. They also included three other senior Soviet political and military officials.

The 10 other men named as coup plotters were all granted amnesty by the State Duma on February 23, 1994 -- ending their 14-month trial, on high treason charges, by the military branch of the Supreme Court.

They went on to play various roles in politics and the private sector in post-communist Russia.